McKay Brothers Delivers Status Update on 2014 US Microwave Roadmap

March 3, 2014

Aurora-Secaucus latency down to 8.15 ms, Aurora-Carteret down to 8.12 ms; New POPs in Piscataway and Cermak; 1 Mbps service to best all rivals in production; Improved connectivity in Aurora data center

OAKLAND, Calif., March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — McKay Brothers, LLC, a leading provider of specialty microwave telecom services delivers a progress report on its 2014 US Microwave Roadmap. The company is reporting, as promised, even lower latencies on its signature Illinois-New Jersey routes, already believed to be the fastest. The company opened new POPs at data centers in Piscataway, NJ and at 350 E. Cermak in Chicago. McKay’s new Aurora-Piscataway path, at 7.98 ms round trip time, is the first commercial route from Aurora to NJ to break the 8.0 ms barrier. McKay is in production with a single megabit bandwidth product between Illinois and NJ that is faster than any competitor’s offering. Additionally, McKay has become an approved telecom provider at the Aurora data center owned by CME Group (NASDAQ: CME), a move that will allow more convenient and more cost-effective connections to McKay services.

“In November we made our 2014 Roadmap public to help buyers make better choices; credibility is key. This update shows McKay delivers on its promises.” says co-founder Bob Meade.

McKay recently bettered its lowest known latency connecting Aurora, IL and Secaucus, NJ to 8.15 ms. The company’s 2014 US Microwave Roadmap laid out plans to reduce latency on this route to 8.12 ms in 2Q. McKay lowered latency on its Aurora-Carteret path to 8.12 ms, with a 2Q expectation of 8.05 ms. These latency improvements resulted from an expanded deployment of Aviat Networks (NASDAQ: AVNW) radio equipment. Additional upgrades, route improvements and reduced serialization delay will drive further latency improvements this year as the company works toward its year-end targets of below 8.05 ms AUR-SEC and below 8.00 ms AUR-CAR.

McKay delivered an expanded footprint, moving two new sites into production, both with lowest known latencies. Piscataway, NJ, is now live with 7.98 ms latency from Aurora DC3 to the CTS (NYSE: CTL) NJ3 data center. McKay opened westbound links from NJ to 350 E. Cermak in Chicago. McKay’s Cermak clients can elect to receive their traffic from the Equinix NY2/NY4 co-los in 7.83 ms/7.84 ms, respectively, and from Carteret in 7.82 ms. McKay Brothers also offers the lowest known latency on the Cermak-Aurora route, 370 microseconds round trip. McKay clients will soon be able to inject data in Cermak for eastbound transmittal. McKay’s expansion to Mahwah, NJ continues apace.

“We are busy working on the next steps, delivering Mahwah and trebling the private bandwidth capacity,” says co-founder Stephane Tyc. “We are also excited by the immediate adoption of our new single megabit service. The market is expanding beyond first adopters. This technology will be mainstream very soon.”

In November 2013, McKay announced an Aurora-NJ bi-directional private bandwidth service in slices of one megabit delivered at latencies believed to be lower than any commercial competitor. The single megabit service offers an opportunity for latency improvement during the three-month contract term and provides termination rights if McKay’s service is surpassed by any competitive offering. “Knowledgeable subscribers have sifted through the industry’s claims, and they understand the McKay offer allows for consistent besting of any competitor’s upgrades,” explains Tyc.

McKay has become an approved telecommunications provider at CME Group’s data center located in Aurora, IL. The designation allows McKay to serve CME Group’s co-located customers simply, efficiently and fairly. “Providing telecom services from the CME Group carrier room in Aurora avoids an unnecessary 10 microseconds RTT between racks inside Aurora. The fastest telecom service is now only a cross connect away,” says Dave Goebels of McKay Sales.

McKay is committed to hardening the network and improving its reliability with space diversity and hot standby across its network. Such projects are expected to be completed in 2014.

“Our network is rapidly approaching the physical limits,” says Meade. “We spend 100% of our time and energy reducing latency, improving reliability and expanding our network so that clients can focus on what they do best: serving their clients and taking risk.”

McKay will continue to release news updates on key milestones. All quoted latencies are round trip time, rack-to-rack.

About McKay Brothers, LLCMcKay Brothers is an independent specialty microwave telecommunications company dedicated to designing, engineering, building and operating best-in-class, extremely low latency networks between financial centers. McKay’s long haul microwave solutions have been in production with live customer trading since mid-2012, offering latencies far below best-in-class fiber and frequently at the lowest known latency available. For more information, visit www.mckay-brothers.com.